Copy after a fresco by Leonardo da Vinci in the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence, executed in 1504-1505 and destroyed around 1560.
Rubens, who traveled to Italy between 1600 and 1608, did not see the sketch of the Battle, destroyed around 1560. However, he had access to Leonardo da Vinci's drawings and studied them. Rubens's work was based on an engraving of 1553 by Lorenzo Zacchia, which was taken from the painting itself or possibly derived from a cartoon by Leonardo.
In March 2012, it was announced that a team led by Maurizio Seracini has found evidence that the Lost Leonardo still exists on a hidden inner wall behind a cavity, underneath a section of Vasari's fresco in the chamber of Salone dei Cinquecento (Hall of the Five Hundred) in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
Its central scene depicted four men riding raging war horses engaged in a battle for possession of a standard, at The Battle of Anghiari in 1440. Purportedly, from left to right are Francesco Piccinino; Niccolò Piccinino; Ludovico Trevisan; Giovanni Antonio Del Balzo Orsini.
